You’ve surely heard and read a lot about the health benefits of fruits and vegetables. But some people believe that swallowing vitamin supplements is easier solution. This is not true.

For one thing, many disagreements have arisen on beta-carotene among scientists.

Researchers found that chemically extracted beta-carotene which is consumed as vitamin supplement provides, at best, no health benefits at all. The worst part is that it could cause lung cancer in smokers.

Scientists were not able to explain why it happens so far. Because natural beta-carotene abundantly found in carrots is very healthy. And beta-carotene based diet significantly reduces the risk of death from heart disease, lung cancer and improves eyesight.

Scientists assume that the reason lies in the fact that beta-carotene in carrots is combined with other antioxidants.

Besides, experiments showed that thermal treatment increases the amount of healthy substances in carrots and it keeps increasing while storing carrots in a fridge for several days.

What’s more, when stored, carrot develops new compounds of strong antioxidants. This is another thing scientists can’t explain yet.

Note: Of course, you don’t have to eat too much carrot. It is actually a healing plant and eating two boiled carrots a day is quite enough to stay healthy.